UKOLN is supported by:

The Role of the Social Web in Scholarly Communication

Brian KellyUKOLNUniversity of BathBath, UK

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/alpsp-2009/http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/alpsp-2009/

This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat)

Acceptable Use PolicyRecording/broadcasting of this talk, taking photographs, discussing the content using email, Twitter, blogs, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised.

Acceptable Use PolicyRecording/broadcasting of this talk, taking photographs, discussing the content using email, Twitter, blogs, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised.

Tag for del.icio.us ‘alpsp-2009'Tag for del.icio.us ‘alpsp-2009'

Email:b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk

Twitter:http://twitter.com/briankelly/

Blog:http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/

Contents

• Social Web and the researcher Blogs Micro-blogs Wikis Social sharing

• Challenges Sustainability (it’ll disappear) Merit (it’s trivia) Diversity (it’s not for all)

• Conclusions and Speculations

Intr

od

uct

ion

Personal Experiences

My peer-reviewed and invited papers are listed in University of Bath institutional repository (with full-text where possible)

Accessing The Paper

Metadata for most recent paper available in repository

Access to paper currently embargoed

Accessing The Paper

Metadata for most recent paper available on publisher’s Web site

Access to paper available to subscribing institutions – otherwise ~£30

Giving Birth To The Paper

Paper written Jan-Apr 2009

Ideas developed following plenary talk at OzeWAI 2009 conference, Jan 2009

For plenary talk:• Slides shared on

Slideshare

Giving Birth To The Paper

For plenary talk:• Talk videoed (using Flip

camera)• Video uploaded to

Blip.TV• Video embedded in blog

post, Web page, …

Giving Birth To The Paper

Blog post about talk: (a) embeds misc. resources and (b) provides forum for discussion

Blog post about talk: (a) embeds misc. resources and (b) provides forum for discussion

Giving Birth To The Paper

Two tweets received immediately after talk at OzeWAI 2009 conf

Led to:• Discussions during

conference• Contributions to

paper, which strengthened arguments

The Value of Brevity

Cited in post on “Web Accessibility Framework in 3 Words”

Response by David Sloan, accessibility researcher, University of Dundee & co-author of several joint papers:

“I was sure I had been using a similar phrase in web accessibility talks and tutorials, so I thought I’d look back through my archived presentations to see when I first mentioned something similar. …… it was surprising – and sobering – to see how much in older presentations I would jump into the detail without some context – some simple three word phrases, like Lisa’s, to underpin how to approach web accessibility. Your post on Twitter and JISC proposal writing, is an illustration of how services like Twitter are teaching us how to be more succinct and effective

in our communication.”

“I was sure I had been using a similar phrase in web accessibility talks and tutorials, so I thought I’d look back through my archived presentations to see when I first mentioned something similar. …… it was surprising – and sobering – to see how much in older presentations I would jump into the detail without some context – some simple three word phrases, like Lisa’s, to underpin how to approach web accessibility. Your post on Twitter and JISC proposal writing, is an illustration of how services like Twitter are teaching us how to be more succinct and effective

in our communication.”

David Sloan (accessibility researcher)

Traditional approach:“In academia, this is how the quality of our work is measured – number of publications we achieve, … the quality of the place we publish …”

But:“slow process of peer reviewing … it’s wonderful to find & read [blog posts & articles] …research written for web … easier to read than an academic paper”

David’s Twitter account created in Oct 2008 and blog launched in Feb 2009

After The Paper Is Published

Summary on blog allows personal responses to be made

Summary on blog allows personal responses to be made

After The Paper Is Published

Summary on blog provides blog track-backs to other blog posts linking to post

Summary on blog provides blog track-backs to other blog posts linking to post

‘Pimp Up’ Your Stuff

How does traffic arrive at UK Web Focus blog?

As the top post (about Opera Unite) had been tweeted, visits are probably from a Twitter client (rather than the Twitter Web site)

Revisiting blog post about the Web Adaptability paper:

• bit.ly service used• Statistics available

Tweet written to make RTing easy:

“The Power Of Passed Links”The Value Of Twitter Is In “The Power Of Passed Links” Wilson predicts that at current growth rates, Twitter “will surpass Google for many websites in the next year.” And that just as nearly every site on the Web has become addicted to Google juice, they will increasingly try to find ways to get more links from Twitter. Because Twitter equals traffic. …Moreover, he asserts that these Twitter links “convert better” than search links because they are often pre-filtered and come in the form of a recommendation from someone you are following.

TechCrunch, June 2009

Shared Bookmarks

References in talk bookmarked in del.icio.us

Enables me to:• Embed resources in

Web page (via RSS)• Explore citations• Make contacts

Shared Bookmarks

Slewth’s RT led to finding her blog & recent papers & then phone chat

References in talk bookmarked in del.icio.us

Enables me to:• Embed resources in

Web page (via RSS)• Explore citations• Make contacts

Experiences With Wikipedia

What About Vandalisation?

Rapper Sword page overwritten with spam on 6 July 2008.

Page restored 1 minute later

Wikipedia

Account created in 2004 initially for social use.

Have created work-related pages (Amplified conference & IWMW) and updated other pages (content & typos)

Account created in 2004 initially for social use.

Have created work-related pages (Amplified conference & IWMW) and updated other pages (content & typos)

Experiences gained (& trusted reputation) in social use helped with professional use. Might track record provide additional work benefits?

Experiences gained (& trusted reputation) in social use helped with professional use. Might track record provide additional work benefits?

The Social Web Challenges

Personal experiences in use of blogs, Twitter, video- & slide-sharing to support writing, receiving feedback & maximising impact of paper described.

But what of challenges:• It’s not for everyone• The services may disappear• I’m unconvinced it provides a tangible ROI

It’s Not For Everyone

Use of Social Web isn’t for everyone:• Personal preferences (1): might willingness to use

Social Web reflect plant / resource investigators in Belbin model?

• Personal preferences (2): preferences in reading blogs (stories?) or peer-reviewed paper (models)

• Personal issues: it takes time to understand & master use of tools

• Gender, culture, age, … factors?• Discipline issues: unsurprising that Web

researchers may be more willing to use Web tools• …

Thoughts: research groups should consider how use of Social Web can be exploited across research teams

Thoughts: research groups should consider how use of Social Web can be exploited across research teams

Sustainability Challenges

What happens when:• Twitter breaks (again)• You discover your old tweets can’t be accessed• The xxx service wasn’t financially viable• The xxx service is now unfashionable (Orkut?)• …

Comments:• In-house services also don’t last forever;

may break; may not be used; …• JIS PoWR project advised on Web

preservation, including Social Web preservation

Sustainability Challenges

Need to put sustainability issues in context:• Disappearing institutional resources• Disappearing institutions• Disappearing technologies

(mainframes, minis, …)

Need for:• Risks and opportunities

assessment framework• Data migration• Willingness to accept some losses

Biases

Subjective factors

IntendedPurpose

Benefits (various

stakeholdersRisks

(various stakeholders

Missed Opps. (various

stakeholdersCosts

(various stakeholders

Time To Stop Doing and Start Thinking: A Framework For Exploiting Web 2.0 Services, Kelly, B., Museums and the Web 2009

Time To Stop Doing and Start Thinking: A Framework For Exploiting Web 2.0 Services, Kelly, B., Museums and the Web 2009

Need For Evidence

Concerns:• It’s still speculative.• We (organisations) need

more evidence that Social Web provide tangible be befits to scholarly publishing.

• We (researchers) also need such evidence

Issues of Social Web metrics to support research has been discussed by Martin Weller, Open University:

• Connections versus Outputs• Some more thoughts on metrics

Relevance of evidence to data is questionable

Issues of Social Web metrics to support research has been discussed by Martin Weller, Open University:

• Connections versus Outputs• Some more thoughts on metrics

Relevance of evidence to data is questionable

Conclusions

To conclude:• Researchers are staring to use Social

Web to support various research activities• But not all will or should do so• There are (unresolved) issues • There are also issues about the

sustainability of managed services• Further research is needed• But it can’t be ignored

Who will benefit most in period of uncertainty: those who just do it or those who remain sceptical?

Who will benefit most in period of uncertainty: those who just do it or those who remain sceptical?

28

Questions

Questions are welcome